The local libraries in the Helsinki area offer amazing spaces for makes. The spaces have 3D-printers, sewing machines, sergers, vinyl cutters and printers and one has even a very expensive laser cutter to mention but a few. I was stuck in a mall with a library on last Thursday when my car was having its maintenance and some minor repairs. As it would have taken me too much time going back home on public transport (I was on the other side of the city) I decided to put my time into a good use and try out as much of the equipment that I could.

The staff were very helpful and showed me how to use the equipment. My first make was this little 3D-printed hump jumper that I found on Thingiverse. (Thingiverse is a website where people share their 3D designs for free and there are so many things you can make even if you don’t yet know how to design an object on your own!) This is a sewing tool that helps to sew over thick seams and other similar thick parts. It took about 30 minutes for the printer to print it out:

And I definitely want to make this kind of boxes for my sewing machine needles. I do not use Organ needles but I hope this design would work anyway. I wonder, if I could even improve the desing by adding holes to store needles that I had been using previously in the case I had to change into a different type of a needle?

Laser cutter is a tool that you can use to cut wood, plastic, cardboard, felt, metal well almost anything. The only thing you need is a vector drawing that has been saved in a pdf format. I needed some help with the settings, since different materials need different settings and I had no idea on how to use the huge machine. As I came completely unprepared I did not have any materials with me. However I went scavenging in the rubbish heap next to the cutter and found a lot of big leftover pieces that the previous users had left behind.

I had had plenty of time as I was waiting for my 3D print so I had made this little drawing for a pair of earrings:

What more? Somebody had cut a large grid out of the same plastic and left out piles of plastic rectangles. They were to be thrown away but I asked to have them even if I did not have any particular idea on how to use them.

At home I realised that they were the size of Scrabble tiles and I had longed for an English set for my Scrabble for a while. Why English? We have a Finnish set that has a different distribution of letters that is completely unsuitable for English words (plus 2 extra letters). Unfortunately the Finnish language and Scrabble don’t work very well together. Finnish has this thing called vowel harmony which means that certain groups of vowels can’t ever be in the same word. This makes it constantly frustrating when you see that you often can use only half of your available tiles. I have never tried playing Scrabble in English but I wanted to try it. So, I printed out some Scrabble tiles on stickers and made myself a second set of Scrabble letters:

The last thing I wanted to do is to decorate my boring laptop with a nice decal. I found a free flower picture online and used it to create a cutting template. I chose white vinyl and cut out this nice floral sticker. It took me a while to strip away all the unnecessary pieces and then I added a transfer sheet to move the design onto my laptop:

There was another machine that would have also printed and cut a photographic picture on the vinyl sheet that could be a sticker or a picture that you could heat press on a t-shirt or some other fabric (The heat press is also offered!). I have some ideas on it but on Friday the machine was in use.

I really like this free service with plenty of friendly staff to help you to make whatever you wish (excluding anything resembling guns). If you want to try out these machines, make sure you reserve your time beforehand. I had luck and there were some machines free but if you really want to make something it would be frustrating to go and find out that the machine you need is in use.